Energy chains such as electrical power and signal cables, hydraulic and pneumatic hoses are used to connect between an energy supply base at a fixed location, e.g. a power control room, to operational equipments at a movable location/operation site, e.g. a drill floor. In applications such as offshore oil drilling operation, long distance, heavy weight electrical cables and hydraulic/pneumatic hoses are used. Connection and installation of the cables and hoses are carried out before any drilling equipment starts operation. To reduce wear and stress on cables and hoses, prevent entanglement, and improve operator safety, cable carriers such as drag chains are employed together with the cables/hoses.
Conventionally, installation and connection of electrical cables and hydraulic/pneumatic hoses as well as the drag chains are carried out on the site, i.e. the movable location where the equipments consuming the electrical/hydraulic/pneumatic power are located. This type of installation requires a sequential work flow, where time-consuming planning, coordination and monitoring work are required. The workflow typically includes the completion of the construction of necessary infrastructure on selected drill floor, and followed by placement of the drag chain and routing of individual cable/hose in different stages. During the cable/hose installation process, other types of operations/preparations for the equipments are interrupted, and will not be started or resumed until the completion of installation of all the cables and hoses. In addition, any mistake in the routing of a single cable or hose would result in man-hours loss as it is necessary to trace the fault before conducting reworks. Any delay of one of the works will have the accumulated time-delays in the whole rig construction timeline.
In view of the above situation, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus to enable cable/hose installation with a better managed time schedule, reduced man-hours and with less interruption on other operations necessary on the site. Such a solution is currently not available.